Way Too Late

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has finally apologised for reversing his manifesto pledge of not raising tuition fees; he hasn’t said that the current policy of charging the extortionate amount of £9,000 per year is a bad policy, just that he originally made a promise that couldn’t be kept. So that’s okay then; he says he won’t break any pledges again and we’ll just take him at his word … I think not. As far as I’m concerned, Clegg lost all credibility as soon as did a deal with the devil, i.e. formed a coalition with the Conservatives. After that it was no surprise that other moral principles fell by the wayside. Former leaders Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell were able to vote against the fee rise along with 21 other Lib Dem M.P.s, but Clegg just couldn’t manage to honour his word because the power of government was too important to him. This apology is a waste of time: the Lib Dems will get trounced in the next general election and will only stand a chance of recovering once they’ve got rid of Clegg as their leader and put a great deal of distance between themselves and the Conservative Party. And students, I fear, will have to suffer long-term debt for many years to come.

 

Simply Unfair

The ConDem government has announced its plan for tuition fees: at least £6,000 per student, with the option for universities to demand up to £9,000. So now students will be saddled with almost double what they were having to pay before, at least! There are some caveats saying that universities will be monitored to ensure that students from poorer backgrounds are being given ample opportunity to enrol, but in general the policies will simply further the economic repression that is so fundamental to right-wing greedy capitalism. Even students who wish to pay off their debts early will be financially punished with an extra repayment in return for not repaying the full amount of interest on their loan - talk about malicious!
This coalition has previously said it would be too time consuming to means-test everyone, but I reckon most students would be willing to give a bit more of their time if it meant a much fairer system was implemented where only richer students would have to pay the maximum tuition fees while poorer ones actually received financial help to attend the university of their choice and receive a worthwhile education. As for the expense of means testing? Well, we could take it from the overblown ‘international aid’ budget which seems to make clear that other countries are considerably more important than our own in these difficult economic times! The ConDems, as usual, should be ashamed; before young adults even have the opportunity to get involved with the property market, they are already carrying a huge pecuniary burden.